Jason's ponytail: He said in an interview that his hair is very unruly... I forget the exact term he used however, and that as a child he was told.... by judges or someone or other?... to eithr cut it very short or grow it out and have a ponytail. Because they found it distracting. And he's had a ponytail since.

The 0,7 "in the demo". Well, I've been following ratings of US broadcast shows on Deadline, and "the demo" is apparently all that matters to the advertisers - as explained by posters earlier in the thread. I can add that scripted shows that hit 0,7 are almost immediately yanked off the schedule. The "demo" often does not watch live however, and the broadcasters are trying to make the advertisers also take into consideration the whole month of viewing (as of now they count Live+3 days, I believe.) So far without success. Shows with 7-8 million (or more, my memory for figures is very poor) viewers have been cancelled if the numbers have not been good enough in "the demo".

Somebody somewhere decided that people over 50 aren't interested in trying new things, and that's what the advertisers religiously believe.

The US needs a top skater who is marketed correctly. Michelle Kwan was the last American to have both. Davis/White fit the bill as top skaters but they are not well know outside of the ice skating world. For the ladies we don't have a top skates at the international level.

Name recognition plays a HUGE roles in the public's perception of a person. I'm sure Lindsey's Vonn name recognition factor greatly increased when she starting Tiger Woods.

Somebody somewhere decided that people over 50 aren't interested in trying new things, and that's what the advertisers religiously believe.

Exactly, which is completely b.s. From my observation people over 50 spend much more time before TV than any other group. They are very vulnerable to lots of advertising: cosmetics, phones, travel deals, cars, healthy lifestyle related products, hobby products, cameras, gadgets. They are the ones who crowd arenas at concerts, shows, movies and sporting events. As generous grandparents they are also very vulnerable to any advertising related to young kids.
Of course they are absolutely not interested in video games or similar useless garbage, and that alone is taking a huge portion of marketing industry, but there are plenty other things they are very open to.

The thing is the world is now completely controlled by the pop-culture. The world IS pop-culture. The world is Capitol. Look at the TV. Everything must be young, white and beautiful. And photoshopped to death.

Another problem is that everything in US sports must be measured by millions. If something falls short of those millions then it must die. Everything must be huge, gigantic, the greatest in the world. Huge games, huge arenas, huge crowds, huge ratings and huge earnings.
Everything else is destined to die. Or thrive in self-financed niches. There is no concept of something in the middle. Kids very talented in volleyball after graduating from college must go to Europe so that they can continue playing volleyball. Because volleyball is to small for America. It's great for Europe, but for America is not measured in mega-millions, so it has no right to exist.

What is the point comparing figure skating to football or basketball? Why do we even try to compare them? Why do we have to compare them? If figure skating in not measured in mega-millions by TV networks then why don't they leave it alone and treat it as college lacrosse? There is plenty room on ESPN for live college lacrosse, so there should be enough room for live figure skating too, right? Don't block it, don't try to make huge money on it by blocking it and claiming exclusive rights to it, or kill it if it doesn't make those money. Just let it live.

Name recognition plays a HUGE roles in the public's perception of a person. I'm sure Lindsey's Vonn name recognition factor greatly increased when she starting Tiger Woods.

Agree about the power of name recognition.

Disagree with your comment re Lindsey Vonn. Her name recognition (at least in the U.S.) already was very high before the 2010 Olympics, and it went up even higher because of her success in Vancouver. Dating Tiger Woods might have caused a minor increase -- but I doubt that it was a great increase because her name recognition already was extremely high.
(I am not a skiing fan. I don't watch non-Olympic skiing. And I watch Olympic skiing only when NBC forces me to as an interruption [from my perspective] to other Olympic sports that are being televised on the same night. But before the Vancouver Games even had started, I was tired of hearing the endless Vonn hype by many media outlets (not only NBC). It was inescapable.)

After watching the grammies last night, I assume that most sports will die a slow death in the U.S. It was clear that the young crowd prefers gimmicks and spectacle over all else. If Jeremy skated in a helmet, Davis & White sprayed paint all over themselves, the pairs dry humped each other and Ashley and Gracie attempted to sing while doing their triples with all of it including pyrotechnics, skating might have a chance. But if they are all just going to skate, the young and hip in this country are going to find it boring. But that is bound to be true of all sports including the major ones.

The US needs a top skater who is marketed correctly. Michelle Kwan was the last American to have both. Davis/White fit the bill as top skaters but they are not well know outside of the ice skating world. For the ladies we don't have a top skates at the international level.

Name recognition plays a HUGE roles in the public's perception of a person. I'm sure Lindsey's Vonn name recognition factor greatly increased when she starting Tiger Woods.

I thik as attractive and champion oriented as D and W are they sadly just don't have the it factor, that charisma that takes you to the top of the sponsor desired stars. They say the right stuff but are rather blah and ice dance while popular to skating enthusiast is mocked the most by the public for not being a sport. Hard sell fortoughness or anything.

After watching the grammies last night, I assume that most sports will die a slow death in the U.S. It was clear that the young crowd prefers gimmicks and spectacle over all else. If Jeremy skated in a helmet, Davis & White sprayed paint all over themselves, the pairs dry humped each other and Ashley and Gracie attempted to sing while doing their triples with all of it including pyrotechnics, skating might have a chance. But if they are all just going to skate, the young and hip in this country are going to find it boring. But that is bound to be true of all sports including the major ones.

But seriously I think some skaters should to skate music of Justin Bieber, One direction and Miley, at least people will realize figure skating is live yet. I was watching Shibs MJ program and a lot comments in youtube seem of MJ fans purely, not figure skating fans

But seriously I think some skaters should to skate music of Justin Bieber, One direction and Miley, at least people will realize figure skating is live yet. I was watching Shibs MJ program and a lot comments in youtube seem of MJ fans purely, not figure skating fans

Along the lines of what you are suggesting, Max Aaron opted for Daft Punk, who won four Grammys on Sunday, for his SP last season. Very cool .
OTOH, Jason Brown skates to Riverdance, which is much more of a niche choice in terms of music. And his FS program went viral. Go figure.

Originally Posted by Skater Boy

I thik as attractive and champion oriented as D and W are they sadly just don't have the it factor, that charisma that takes you to the top of the sponsor desired stars. They say the right stuff but are rather blah and ice dance while popular to skating enthusiast is mocked the most by the public for not being a sport. Hard sell fortoughness or anything.

Blah is in the eye of the beholder ... and I would say that Davis/White are blah-free more often than not, esp. in comparison to certain U.S. skaters who (inexplicably to me) are media darlings. (I am not referring to Jason Brown.)

I think D & W will be very marketable - especially if they win the OGM. They're attractive, both are articulate, they've been together forever but not romantically inclined, college students, have a life outside of skating, etc. etc. It isn't enough to win a medal - you also have to have a personality. And 'some' of the media darlings (not Jason Brown) are devoid of personality on and off the ice!

Along the lines of what you are suggesting, Max Aaron opted for Daft Punk, who won four Grammys on Sunday, for his SP last season. Very cool .
OTOH, Jason Brown skates to Riverdance, which is much more of a niche choice in terms of music. And his FS program went viral. Go figure.

Interesting point. I think the problem with looking for a "formula for success" is that.. there really isn't a "one size fits all formula". There are individual circumstances... and often the reasons for anyone gaining popularity over anybody else can be pretty random. Would anyone have guessed the success, for example, of Susan Boyle? Wouldn't her story pretty much go against any formula ever devised?

I certainly doubt that a skater skating to Justin Bieber would have his fans turning out in droves suddenly becoming ardent figure skating fans. Or maybe they wouldn't even ever be made aware that there even is a figure skater skating to his music.

Interesting point. I think the problem with looking for a "formula for success" is that.. there really isn't a "one size fits all formula". There are individual circumstances... and often the reasons for anyone gaining popularity over anybody else can be pretty random. Would anyone have guessed the success, for example, of Susan Boyle? Wouldn't her story pretty much go against any formula ever devised?

I certainly doubt that a skater skating to Justin Bieber would have his fans turning out in droves suddenly becoming ardent figure skating fans. Or maybe they wouldn't even ever be made aware that there even is a figure skater skating to his music.

LRK, agree with you 100% that it would be an exercise in futility to try to identify a magic formula.

LOL, another thought on how Jason Brown proves that popularity is unpredictable:
His SP music is from Prince, but his Riverdance FS video is the one that went viral.
(As an aside, I said in another thread that I think the limited inherent appeal of Riverdance music worked in Jason's favor in a way. What got some people excited about the video is that the quality of his performance overcame their dislike of the music.)

On Thursday night, I watched Men's SP on NBC.
Actually I had already watched it on internet, but still liked to hear what Scott and Sandra would say.
However, NBC showed Free style skiing during the prime time, which I really enjoyed,
and they finally showed a few Figure skaters toward the end of the program.
I did not count exactly how many were shown, but compared with the past coverage, it was definitely far less.

Of course, I knew the decline of the popularity of figure skating in US, it has been talked for quite a while,
but now it is less than free style skiing???

During the last Olympic games coverage, Bob Costas stated that at least in the North America,
Figure skating was the main piece of the winter Olympic.

Because of the internet, I do not care about the network coverage much,
but still it is a bit scary.